Architect Louis Sauer designed the homes in Harbor Walk as 1980s contemporary, nodding to the century-long span of architectural styles in Otterbein while making a clear distinction between new and old. Our homes are most clearly of the late 20th century in the back, and one of the original contemporary elements was the garage door.
Over the years, many of the doors have been replaced with doors easily available at big box home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes. Unfortunately, the least common denominator at these stores is a decorative, raised-panel “colonial”. The double-wide rails squish the panels into rectangles.
If your door replacement contractor looks just a little harder, doors in the original style are available even after nearly four decades. For example, the Model E44 and K44 from General Doors Corporation and the Colonial 105, single car 4-4 from Wayne-Dalton are good matches for the originals. You may find this surprisingly common style from other manufacturers as well.
You can avoid a serious error made by Harkins, Harbor Walk’s builder, if you apply at least one extra coat of paint on the bottom edge, sides, and lower six inches of the inside of the lowest panel (temporarily removing the bottom gasket if necessary). This area is most affected by rainwater and, left unprotected, led to the demise of many original doors.
From Harbor Walk Happenings, March-2018